NEW WORLD ORDER: PAYMENTS POWERING CHANGE
Small world,
BIG possibilities Payments are driving never-before-seen levels of global innovation and connectivity, say Vitesse PSP’s Phillip McGriskin and Mauro Di Buono The global insurance market stands at a pivotal point as digitisation increasingly hurtles an industry dating back 600-plus years into previously uncharted waters. Opportunities abound as financial technology specialists use the building blocks of open banking regulations to offer their insurance company clients new solutions such as embedded finance products and ‘real-time’ parametric cover. But underpinning all of this is the need for ease of payments – the very ethos of London-based Vitesse PSP, the global payments, liquidity and treasury management platform which is at the vanguard of the charge to change. Vitesse was founded in 2014 by Phillip McGriskin and Paul Townsend, who had previously co-founded collection payments provider Envoy Services which, itself, was snapped up by payments giant Worldpay in 2011. Since then Vitesse has amassed some impressive statistics. Operating in 172 countries or territories, it annually processes payments totalling £5billion. As well as counting many established blue chip insurers among
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ThePaytechMagazine | Issue 12
its clients, it provides its services – which include payroll solutions – to over 70 per cent of companies in the London market. And, in February, the fintech announced that it had secured $26m in Series B funding to support and accelerate its growth in Europe and the US, as part of its vision of becoming the payment partner of choice for the insurance industry. The size of that prize is vividly demonstrated by the fact that, globally, more than $4trillion of claims are settled annually. Announcing the Series B funding, which was led by venture capital firm Prime Ventures, supported by Octopus Ventures and Hannover Digital Investors, Vitesse CEO McGriskin said: “The sector is only now adapting to more digitised ways of working, demonstrating an opportunity for Vitesse to support those looking for more integrated and efficient ways of managing liquidity while simultaneously achieving greater capital efficiency. “In just over a year, we have increased the payments value processed by over 100 per cent and the client funds under management by 127 per cent, secured
several significant new contracts and now, with the support of our new backers, we have even greater ambitions.” So, what have been the drivers for digitisation of the payments industry, including, increasingly, in insurance, and what does the future hold? Here, McGriskin and Mauro Di Buono, who is responsible for relationship management and business development for Vitesse’s corporate division, give their views. THE PAYTECH MAGAZINE: Why has the payments industry been a catalyst for finance innovation? MAURO DI BUONO: From a B2B perspective, I think the fact that organisations want to do more business ffnews.com
